Over + Onward

The main battle in prayer is perseverance. As St. Teresa of Avila notes, the devil does all he can to get souls away from faithfulness to prayer, using every possible or imaginable excuse: it’s pointless, you’re not worthy to pray, you’re wasting your time, you’ll pray better if you put if off till tomorrow, there’s this urgent thing you must really do now, it would be a shame to miss that fantastic TV program, what are people going to think of you, etc.

St. Teresa explains that it is natural for the devil to put up a stiff fight on this point, for someone faithful to prayer is quite certainly lost to him.That person may still fall often, but after each fall he or she will have the grace to rise up again even higher than before.

Reflect

Nothing good comes easily. You have to lose things you thought you loved, give up things you thought you needed. You have to get over yourself, beyond your past, out from under the weight of your future. The good stuff never comes when things are easy.